We were soldiers Wiki
Welcome to the Wiki This wiki is about the film we were soldiers. Based on a true story. PLOT _______________________________________ A French Foreign Legion unit is on patrol in Vietnam in 1954 during the First Indochina War. The captain of the patrol curses the land when they see nothing. Then, the unit is suddenly ambushed by Vietminh forces who kill the officers and, although the unit kills many enemies it is soon overrun. Nguyen Huu An hypothesising that if they take no prisoners the French will eventually stop sending troops, orders the execution of all surviving French soldiers. Eleven years later, Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore a dedicated U.S. soldier, is deeply committed to training his troops, troopers of 7th Cavalry Regiment, who are preparing to be sent to Vietnam. He is disquieted because the 7th Cavalry regiment was the unit commanded by General George Custer in the 19th Century when he and his men were slaughtered at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Moore is also dismayed because President Lyndon B. Johnson has decreed that the war would be fought "on the cheap," without declaring it a national emergency. As a result, Moore believes he will be deprived of his oldest, best-trained soldiers (a formal declaration of war would have meant mobilization and extension of the terms of enlistment for volunteer soldiers) - about 25% of his battalion - just prior to shipping out for Vietnam. After arriving in Vietnam, he learns that an American base has been attacked, and is ordered to take his 400 men after the enemy and eliminate them, despite the fact that intelligence has no idea of the number of enemy troops. He leads a newly created air cavalry unit into the Ia Drang Valley against 4,000 -6,000 well equipped enemy soldiers. After landing in the "Valley of Death", the soldiers capture a North Vietnamese Army lookout who informs them that the location they were sent to is actually the Base camp of an entire North Vietnamese Army division over 4,000 men. At arrival, 2nd Lt. Henry Herrick spots a scout, and runs after him, ordering his reluctant soldiers to follow. The scout lures them into an ambush, resulting in the majority of the platoon members' deaths, including Herrick's. The platoon becomes surrounded with no chance of retreat. Sgt. Savage assumes command of the platoon and by calling in artillery and using the cover of darkness, holds off the Vietnamese from their small defensive position. With helicopters constantly dropping off the Calvary units, Moore manages to secure weak points before the Vietnamese took advantage of it. An emotional toll is taken back home, where Moore's wife Julie and another Lieutenant's wife, Barbara Geoghegan take over the job of delivering telegrams that inform families (mainly wives like themselves) living at Fort Benning, Georgia, the unit's base of operation, of soldiers' deaths. On the second day, despite being trapped near the landing zone, and desperately outnumbered, the main force manages to hold off the Vietnamese with artillery, mortars, and helicopter lifts of supplies and reinforcements. Eventually, enemy commander Nguyen Huu An orders a large scale attack to completely overrun the American position. At the point of breaking, Moore calls in the last resort "Broken Arrow" (an air-strike on their own position), killing some of their own soldiers but eliminating most of the Vietnamese offensive force. The stranded platoon led by Savage are eventually rescued after the Vietnamese forces are repelled. The American troops regroup, secure the area and charge up the mountain where the Vietnamese division headquarters is located. The Vietnamese have set up strong defense emplacements near the hidden entrance of the underground passage to the command post spoken of by the scout. Hal and his men charge right at them, into a seemingly impending massacre, but before the Vietnamese can fire, Major Bruce "Snakeshit" Crandall flies in with his helicopter and strafes the Vietnamese, destroying the most of the enemy defense. Meanwhile, Nguyen Huu An the Vietnamese Commander is alerted that the Americans have broken through the lines, and the Base camp has no troops between command post and the Americans and the reserve forces were also without. He orders the headquarters evacuated. . Moore, having completed his objective, returns to the L.Z. to be picked up, and, after all of his men, dead or alive, are removed from the battlefield, steps on to a helicopter and flies out of the valley. Strong visual emphasis is placed on Moore's being the last American to set foot off the field of battle. At the end of the movie it is revealed that the Landing Zone immediately reverted to North Vietnamese hands after the American troops were airlifted out. Hal Moore continued part two of the battle in a different landing zone not in the movie. He returned home safely after 235 more days of fighting. His superiors congratulated him for killing over 1800 NVA& Viet Cong soldiers. Latest activity Category:Browse